Best Diabetic Friends.

Today we’re going to share our most memorable diabetes day. You can take this anywhere…. your or your loved one’s diagnosis, a bad low, a bad high, a big success, any day that you’d like to share. Also, for more info about Diabetes Blog Week or to find a list of everyone who has posted on today’s topics you can follow the link Bitter Sweet Diabetes. :)

It’s known that I have been a type one diabetic for almost eight years now. (Though it feels like much longer) When I was first diagnosed, at the end of 2005, I was given very little information on the subject. There weren’t classes being given or any sort of support groups around. I was told that I would have to take insulin injections three times a day for the rest of my life. In that bleak hospital room so long ago I was shown how to survive and then sent on my way. The only diabetics I had ever come across were my mother, who was a type 2 and not on shots, and my aunt who was a terrible type 1. I say terrible only because she was 14 when she was diagnosed and took very little care of herself through out the years. She has had fingers amputated and has been in and out of hospitals since I can remember. She’s been on dialysis since I was very young and I prayed to never get diabetes if that was what it looked like. (Obviously, I was devastated after I received my diagnosis then)

This whole diabetic world was new and very frightening.

I went years feeling like I was the only diabetic in the world. (Dramatic, I know) None of my friends had to deal with this and every person I would come across that was personally affected by diabetes was older, like, way older. They were also always type two. Then I a few years into my college career I met a girl in one of my classes and I was curious as to why she carried a beeper around with her. After mustering up the courage to ask about it I came to find out that she was a type one diabetic…JUST LIKE ME! That “beeper” was her insulin pump! I was ecstatic. She was actually a year younger than me and we clicked immediately. Suddenly I had someone to discuss the lows and the highs with and the silly things people would say. We were inseparable. Meeting her that day had to be the best diabetes day I had ever had. We aren’t friends anymore, she sort of moved on with her life as mine was taking off in a different direction, but not a day goes by that I don’t think about her.

She was my very first diabetic friend.

After we lost touch I gave up on making diabetic friends. It was difficult putting myself out there that first time. Then I came across the DOC and the way I felt meeting her is how I feel every time I meet and talk with all of you. It’s been very special for me and I hope these feelings never go away. If I could talk to her again I would say thank you for being my friend and sharing in all my diabetic ramblings. Thank you for showing me that it is alright to want/need that sort of connection.

To the DOC..Thank you for always being a shoulder to lean on!